New Developments in North Korea’s Nuclear Weapons Programme: Implications for European Security Issue Issue. 2016/11 • May 2016

North Korea’s recent bellicosity and inflammatory rhetoric have reminded the international community that the Kim Jong Un regime is a unique threat to stability in a region that is at the intersection of global economics, security, and power politics. The country’s development of nuclear weapons and missile programmes over the last fifteen years has not only been a signal failure of international diplomacy, but now also represents a danger to the global nonproliferation regime. This policy brief begins with an overview of the status of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, and then examines how their proliferation possibilities and effect on Northeast Asian regional geopolitics radiate consequences for European security. The conclusion outlines a number of modest steps that the EU and its member states might consider taking in order to respond to some of these challenges